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Fortis B-47 Mysterious Planets Limited Edition Watch

True watch aficionados always appreciate originality and uniqueness of timepieces, and this is exactly the reason why Fortis B-47 Mysterious Planet Limited Edition Watch has such a high appeal. This oversized mechanical timekeeper, the result of cooperation with the renowned architect and designer Karsten Krebs, uses a very special way of displaying the current hour. It involves five separate hour dials that represent celestial bodies. Each of the dials is utilized in a specific part of the day due to the inclusion of a special “jumping hour” movement.

The original piece by Fortis is a vision embodiment of the famous architect and designer, Professor Karsten K. Krebs who is a lecturer at the Peter Bahrens School of Architecture in Düsseldorf. The center of the face represents the Sun, while the five rotating dial represent five planets that are the closest to the center of the Solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter). As the five planets rotate around the dial, all of them take turns in displaying the correct hour, as jumping hours skip to appear on the different planet each hour. Of course, this is done in the pre-arranged and identical manner, but it still has a mysterious and surprising effect. The original planets hour display system is supplemented with the classical minute hand.

To make this possible, the Swiss watchmaker from Grenchen used self-winding mechanical Fortis caliber F-2024 with the size of 11 ½‘’. The automatic movement incorporates 21 jewels and a fine timing device, and runs on the high frequency of 4 Hz. As it is usual for the movements that are made by Fortis, this caliber also owes its improved shock resistance to the inclusion of Incabloc shock absorber.

The proprietary jumping hours mechanical movement is fitted into a large round case with the diameter of 47 mm. B-47 Mysterious Planets timepiece has a two-parts housing made from stainless steel with a highly polished finish and includes a stationary bezel. Another great detail is that Fortis opted for a transparent case-back that displays the internal functioning of the in-house created movement. Besides, the high end construction of the piece is visible in the decision to use sapphire crystal with double glare-proof treatment for enhanced legibility.

Black or Blue Skies

There are two versions, or rather two limited editions of Fortis B-47 Mysterious Planets. The clearest difference between them is the color of the dial: sky which is the setting for the Sun and five orbiting planets (with visible orbits on the dial) can be either deep blue or black. The version with the blue dial bears the reference number 677.20.35, while the black skies variation has the designation 677.20.31. This is the only difference concerning the faces of the watch, because both models include chromed circular indices that are in this case only used to display minutes. Indices and frames of rotating hour apertures are chromed. There is also a slight difference in the choice of bracelets for two versions. Both are available with highly polished steel bracelets (with folding clasps) and with black leather straps. The third option for black variation is a black rubber band. In the case of the blue dial version of B-47 Mysterious Planets timepiece, the third option for the bracelet is a blue silicone strap. Despite the choice of the attachment for the watch, it is noticeable that all bracelets are fitted to the case, which is the usual trait of Fortis aesthetics.

Both blue and black variations of the watch with jumping hour displays are constructed in the limited editions of 500 pieces, while each copy is individually numbered. It is also worth noting that the construction of the timepiece enables water resistance to respectable 200 meters.